Hon. Camillo Gonsalves, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning said the government is not interested in being or becoming a hotelier.
Speaking on WE FM’s Issue at Hand Program on Sunday, Minister Gonsalves stated that the government currently owns two hotels , the Cobblestone Inn, in Kingstown and the Holiday Inn Express and Suites, in Diamond.
He also said the government is involved in developing a third hotel the Marriott Hotel, in which it will be a $50 million dollar equity partner with a private entity.
The Finance Minister made it clear that the government’ss interest in building hotels is to create room stock to drive a number of benefits in the economy.
“That the government is not interested in being or becoming a hotelier. The skill set of the government is not running hotels. Our interest in building these hotels is to create room stock. Because once we create room stock, we drive a number of other benefits in the economy. If you have more rooms, you get more airlines. If you have more airlines, you get more tourists. If you have more tourists, you sell more agricultural produce, a taxi man make more money, the tour operator makes more money, etc. So we have said from the very start that it is not our intent to build and hold hotels indefinitely as a hotelier.” Minister Gonsalves said.
He highlighted the ultimate goal is to divest the government of these hotels after their interests has been satisfied.
These include addition to room stock, jobs, tourists and economic benefits.
